| Summary: | The clauses about inheritance contained in the Law Code of Gortyn show that one of the lawgiver's most important aims was to provide a fair division of the inheritance between the deceased's children, according to their sex. The rules were less precise about the next heirs, the collateral relatives. When someone died, his heirs had the right to refuse the inheritance. If they did so, they did not have to pay the debts of the deceased person. In a similar way, the adoptive son could reject the inheritance and not fulfill all the human and religious obligations towards the deceased father. In sum, the heirs could refuse an inheritance and, thus, had no negative consequences regarding their relative's death. But the question remains about the legitimate son: was he under the obligation to accept the paternal inheritance and to take care of the funerary rituals and, thus, to pay back his deceased father's debts?
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